Abstract:
The EcoPort 'universe' may be presented as four distinct but integrated conceptual domains within, and across which a variety of tools and procedures apply in a more or less standard manner. These domains deal with Resources, Entities, EthoGraphs and eNarratives.

Resources available for your use are listed in the lower left-hand frame. Clicking on an item in this frame leads to either a list from ... which you can make your choices or a search form to enable you to find what you are looking for. In all cases, please consult the Help and Information icons that appear on these pages. Ecoport is a service that Ecoport runs under the auspices of the University of Florida, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution.

Literature: refers you to a variety of tools and procedures to find and manage references, bibliographies, lists and annotated bibliographies.

Glossary of Terms: gives you access to several categories of terms and their descriptions which may be hyperlinked to other terms and information in other sections of EcoPort.

Hypermemes: refer to several categories of discrete blocks of information called memes. Examples include standard methods and recipes that are recorded once as HyperMeme records so that they can be used many times from other points within EcoPort.

Picture Databank: contains pictures shared by members of the EcoPort community. EcoPort users agree to allow other Editors and Authors to make use of the pictures stored in the communal picture database. Such use is allowed for non-commercial and educational purposes only and submitting authors retain all intellectual property rights associated with original authorship.

Slide Shows: are assemblies of slides to which a Slide Show author attaches a caption so that the set of pictures and text constitutes a film strip or slide show that can be viewed on the Internet or a stand-alone EcoPort CD-ROM. In assembling Slide Shows, EcoPort Editors can use the pictures shared by other EcoPort contributors.

Taxonomic Keys: provide tools to enable EcoPort users to identify an entity. In future, Taxonomic keys will be related and cross-referenced to phylogenetic tables and mechanisms to generate and display multiple lineages, complete with concordance.

Hierarchies: refer to phylogenetic tables that display the ranks and names of taxa. Different systems are accommodated and multiple lineage patterns are calculated from these hierarchies.

Interactive Tables: are made possible by applying EcoPort's tools and procedure that enable Editors to construct Tables wherein information elements in table cells can be hypertext linked to other information elements and components in the EcoPort knowledge space.

Contacts: a label that refers to a database of names and addresses of organizations and institutions known to provide expert services or resources relevant to objectives of the EcoPort programme. These records are established in EcoPort by Editors who have passwords that enable them to make changes to the Contacts Database. If you have comments on this service or wish to have your institution registered in this database, please contact the EcoPort Supervisor.

Other Databases: EcoPort's policy is to make links to other databases only when those links are ancillary to the main information presented and managed in EcoPort. We do this because EcoPort can also be distributed on CD-ROM, and when this is the case, users who do not have Internet access will be unable to rely on links to other sources of data. Thus, EcoPort Editors focus on providing critical information and not merely, and certainly not primarily, directing readers to sources of information.

Service Citation

Originators:
University of South Florida, Food and Agriculture Organization and National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution
Title:
Ecoport: The Consilience Engine
URL:
http://ecoport.org/